Clark's Olympic silver is celebrated in Chichester

Saskia Clark graduated in 2003 with an undergraduate degree in sports and exercise science and retains a close link with the university as she and all RYA sailors regularly visit the West Sussex institution as part of their training programme.

She took silver with her sailing partner Hannah Mills in the women’s 470 sailing in Weymouth after a week of racing that saw the battle for the top spot come down to a straight fight with the crew from New Zealand, who took the gold. GB’s sailors took a gold and four silvers between them.

Every medal winner in sailing for the past four Olympic Games has undertaken part of their training at Chichester, where staff have continued to prepare sailors for London 2012 through work funded by the RYA.

The squad go to the University for regular fitness assessments and general sports science input, and campus bosses are delighted to have contributed to the success of the team this year.

The university now hope to continue their track record at the Rio Olympics in 2016. As an official supplier, they provide physiology services to the pathway squads - the future Olympic champions - through a PhD student based at the RYA Performance Centre in Dorset.

The GB synchronised swimming team also had university help – their sports psychologist is Dr Tim Holder, a senior lecturer at Chichester, who worked with them before and during the Olympics.